A Nihon University football player on May 22 said he injured a defenseless quarterback with a vicious late hit because his coaches ordered him to “crush” the signal caller or be benched.

At a news conference in Tokyo, Taisuke Miyagawa, 20, also said that he and his parents visited the quarterback of Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo Prefecture on May 18 to offer a direct apology.

“I am sorry about injuring the quarterback and causing deep problems for his family and his American football team,” Miyagawa said, bowing deeply to start the news conference at the Japan National Press Club.

One of his lawyers said Miyagawa decided to speak publicly about the cheap shot because Nihon University has been slow in offering details about what transpired in the 51st annual game in the capital on May 6 between Tokyo-based Nihon University and Kwansei Gakuin University.

The lawyer also said Miyagawa wanted to give his account because his team had no plans to interview him as of May 21

Miyagawa said he was worried about his playing time because he had been removed from the practice squad a few days before the May 6 game. He said his coaches thought he had become “less motivated.”

He said his coaches told him to “crush” the opponent’s quarterback on the first play of the game if he wanted to stay in the game.

The player said that right before kickoff, he told his coaches, “Please put me in the game and I will crush him.”

According to Miyagawa, Masato Uchida, the head coach of Nihon University, ordered him to do so at any cost.

The quarterback suffered injuries to his right knee and lower back that will take three weeks to heal, according to a Kwansei Gakuin University official.

Miyagawa stayed in the game but was ejected after committing his third penalty on the fifth play.

Not that telling someone to "crush" the QB is a good thing, but you can interpret that as telling a guy to go out and nail the QB with a clean hit. He's a 20 year old that should know better. "ordered him to do so at any cost" is a different story though.

Not that telling someone to "crush" the QB is a good thing, but you can interpret that as telling a guy to go out and nail the QB with a clean hit. He's a 20 year old that should know better. "ordered him to do so at any cost" is a different story though.

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Agreed but I think we can safely assume it was later though. I believe that since ANY responsible coach would have pulled that kid for that hit and sat him at least the rest of that game, if not the next few games as well. Instead he was left in the game until he took 3 penalties in the first 5 plays and got kicked out. Clearly the coach wanted him out there hurting people.